remember me as a time of day
by beeper
Summary: This time, Watanuki saves Doumeki. Spoilers for recent chapters around chapter 180 onwards .


**Title**: (remember me) as a time of day  
**Fandom** : xxxholic  
**Summary**: Spoilers up to recent chapters (around 180 odd). This time, Watanuki saves Doumeki.  
**Disclaimer** : Standard disclaimers apply!  
One-shot, slight Doumeki/Watanuki

Watanuki is no stranger to loss. He has lost his parents, half an eye (though this loss was not borne alone), a pinky finger (not that he ever needs help keeping his promises), and his memories.

He's lost other unimportant things too - his composure and common sense, for one. Being around cute girls tends to rob Watanuki of this. On more than a few occasions, nearly his sanity, thanks to requests (or _demands_, really) for food. But these are the things Watanuki doesn't mind losing. As an equal price, as compensation, he's lost his selfish, naive pride. He's lost feelings of loneliness and purposelessness so painful that he once unconsciously tried to erase his own existence.

All things considered, Watanuki only considered it natural he didn't want to lose the greatest bane of his existence - the idiot Doumeki.

*

(1)

It's so painfully, stupidly mundane. In a world of spirits and ghosts and gods, all it takes is one careless driver.

Watanuki can't leave the shop, so Mugetsu and Himawari bring him to Watanuki. He waits impatiently as they drag him to the gates, his heart hammering. When they heave Doumeki over the threshold, Watanuki's hands ghost around frantically, hover over his closed eyes, tilts his jaw back, feels his (stubborn, idiotic) head for bumps. They rest on his heart, finally -- still pounding relentlessly.

Stubborn idiot, Watanuki thinks. And for that he is grateful.

(3)

Watanuki decides to take a trip. It's not too far away, many people make the journey every day. For these reasons, Watanuki goes to Hell.

The price is his memories with Doumeki. _It's a fair price_, Watanuki muses.

But fair doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as easy.

The wizened woman places the bottle gently into a pool of water. Watanuki takes the bottle from Mokona, who purses his lips in obvious disapproval.

The old woman's hunded over as though from old age, but Watanuki knows she's been here for some time now, and will be for some time yet. It's not something as straightforward that weighs her down.

"It's a special brew, like you requested," she says, kindly.

"I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you," Watanuki replies.

"Don't worry about it, I've plenty to spare," she explains, and she smiles at her own joke. "And it's been a long time since anyone remembered me."

(2)

Haruka doesn't seem particularly happy about this turn of events, but Watanuki can see he's torn. Doumeki is his grandson afterall.

"Interfering like that," Haruka frowns (and when he does he looks so much like his grandson that Watanuki's chest tightens briefly).

Watanuki inhales, exhales a spiral of smoke. "This, also, is hitsuzen. Yuuko believed in this too - if people wish hard enough.."

He smiles, shakes his head ruefully.

Haruka looks grim, unconvinced, but Watanuki interrupts and stands. "It's not like it'll matter much, I'll be busy in the shop.." And despite all that talk about their destinies being intertwined -- "It won't matter much anyway. It's nothing much." He can't keep the petulant edge from the last declaration.

"He won't like it."

Back to more familiar ground. Watanuki smiles, and complains fondly, "When has he ever? I owe it to him -- this eye, and his blood. I'll be fine.

"This will teach him to look both ways before he crosses the road," Watanuki jokes. He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "I know it's not perfect, but it's for the best."

And so he wakes up, draws a hand over his eyes like brushing cobwebs off from a dream.

(4)

A sip - _**one for sorrow**_

_"I heard fools don't catch colds, but maybe idiots do."_

Another - _**two for joy**_

_First, daikon, then tsukune, and after that, Konyaku and tobo maki, and a potato shira --_

_"Get it yourself," Watanuki snarls. He's pretty sure he's about to burst a blood vessel from his unreasonable demands. "Who the hell do you think I am?"_

_Unrepentant -- "Also, chikuwa."_

_Even as he's complaining, his hands are already moving of their own accord, deftly picking and placing ingredients into the bowl._

A swallow - _**three for a girl**_

_Watanuki-kun, you liar. You said you wouldn't make me cry.._

The dregs - _**four for a boy**_

_"It's fine. If you don't want to believe that it happened, you don't have to."_

_"Who said that they didn't believe? I know that I can't prove that what I've seen is the truth. I may not be able to see them, but it seems that spirits follow you around._

_"Because you say they are there, they are there."_

Unbidden, a sob.

*

(5)

Doumeki has enough experience with the supernatural to realise that _this_ is probably not a normal school day.

It's eerily quiet and calm without the undercurrent of chatter by the other students. He's tired of wandering the school grounds, so he makes his way to where they usually have their lunch where he sits and broods.

He's good at waiting, so he does just that.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Watanuki, leaning against a tree easy as you please. Watanuki looks grave, clad in the robes he'd put on in the shop when he'd made his decision. Even so, it can't be him - Watanuki said himself that he would not leave the shop.

He doesn't take kindly to whatever this is, wearing Watanuki's face. "Who are you?"

The boy unfolds his long legs from where he was leaning against the tree. His eyes are hooded, like he's keeping a secret. "My name is Watanuki. I grant wishes."

Doumeki feels growing unease unfurling within him. "Why are you here?"

The boy frowns a little, like he's trying to remember. He then shakes his head and shrugs. "I don't know, someone must have made a wish."

"Who!" Doumeki grabs the boy's shirt, shoves him hard against the tree. A part of him, small and quiet is saying, _not again_, _this is familiar_.

"It was me," Watanuki admits with infuriating calm. His hand reaches, independent of his intentions, to the side of Doumeki's face, an echo of an afterecho.

Doumeki eyes his hand and turns back to glare back at Watanuki. "Why?"

Watanuki answers without thinking, and the answer surprises even himself -- "I don't want you to disappear."

"Look," Watanuki says, with a faint smile. Doumeki can barely hear him over the pounding of his heart -- what did this idiot do now, why, and his head hurts so badly--

(6)

Doumeki wakes up with a blinding headache. Through slitted eyes he can barely make out the interior of the room. In Yuuko's shop, then. Something twisted tight inside of him loosens a little; he was half-afraid he would come by and see nothing, a barren space where Watanuki's supposed to be. There's something else, though. Something important.

"Watanuki," he breathes. There's smoke coiling lazily in the room -- incense, maybe -- and it's making him light-headed. But there's something important, something's wrong.

Maru speaks up first. She's peering at him from the door, looking drawn and worried. Moro, a few paces away, echoes her anxieties.

"I'm sorry, but Watanuki, he said to tell you--"

"'Remember for both of us.'"

(_fin._)

**Author's notes**:  
1 The woman Watanuki gets the potion/brew from is meant to be Meng-po, whom I am suddenly utterly fascinated with at this moment. More about her (briefly!) here.  
2 The references were ganked from the manga/anime. I have altered the flow of the scenes a little for my own nefarious purposes but most of it is canon! \o/


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